User Reviews

I remember watching this film in the theatres and coming out confused whether I liked the film or not.

There were good points and bad points in the film.

Good: Finally Karishma Kapoor has transformed from a childish and annoying girl from prem qaidi (debut film) to Sapoot (last film before Raja Hindustani) to a very beautiful and mature women. She moved away from those pink flowery frocks to stylish dresses and sari's.

The songs were fantastic and very catchy, especially "Pardesi, Pardesi".

The kiss – Although the kiss has been tried before in Vardi (Madhuri and Jackie) and Dayavan (Madhuri and Vinod), this one is something special.

Bad: The story is the same old rich boy/girl falls in love with poor girl/boy and rich family is against and conspire to separate them, etc, etc, etc.

I didn't feel any chemistry between Raja and Aarti and the story moved quickly to them getting married. It was obvious to see that Raja adored Aarti, but she thought of him as a very close friend and there was no indication that she loves him until they kiss.

I'm a huge fan of Aamir Khan, however, I don't believe this film did anything for him, like his earlier films such as Baazi, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander and Rangeela.

All in all I will have to say you watch this film for the music and Karishma Kapoor only, nothing else.

5/10.

This film has all the usual masala elements of Bollywood - the fight scenes, the comedy etc - that we know and love AND one of the great erotic moments of Bollywood. Karisma Kapoor plays the sophisticated bombayite rich girl and Amir Khan the poor man, a taxi driver, besotted with her. They make a great pairing, Kapoor adorably cute and highly attractive (if not classically beautiful in an Aishwaira Rai sense). Khan a fresh-faced young guy and the ideal lead.

Most Bollywood movies avoid kisses or they're 'blink and you missed it'. I have watched dozens of Bollywood movies and have never seen a kiss like it...it goes on...and on.

The first 45 or so minutes of the movie is a slow burn buildup to the kiss.

By the time the kiss comes Karisma Kapoor has teased Amir Khan almost beyond endurance with her coquettrey, in a variety of sexy outfits, like the time she goes shopping in town and changes into a red micro-mini dress and, seeing his embarrassment at not knowing where to put his eyes, teases him saying "You don't like my dress, my dress is very nice".

The kiss when it comes is incredibly long ... it times out at around two minutes!

For my money it's one of the great erotic moments in all of Bollywood.

Some may find Raja Hindustani as the same tired and worn out 90's plot... but I happen to love it. Aamir lights up the screen with a great character, Raja Hindustani, a poor villager who drives a taxi who falls in love with a rich girl from Mumbai.

The rest of the story, I'm sure you can guess, as it is very predictable and nothing new. However, songs are really great, and story is captivating.

I will say the ending is stupid and Johnny Lever is as annoying as ever this time as Raja's annoying sardar friend. Most of the film I wanted him to drop dead of heart attack. But he never does...

But either way this is just a fun masala film with Aamir in the lead. It's not too serious, it's a great time pass and a good love story. If you don't get your hopes up for something mind blowing, you won't be let down.

I watched this because of its status as a Bollywood nostalgia film. However, there really is much more bad than good in this movie. I'll start with the pros. The last hour or so the plot gets more interesting as the family manipulation really kicks in and the climax and resolution arrive, the rest of the movie just kind of feels like slap-stick time-wasting nonsense. There are a few good songs thrown in, the classic being "Pardesi Pardesi." Thats where the good ends. Some spoilers may be ahead. Yikes! Where do I begin? The first thing is Karisma Kapoor's acting in the whole first half of the movie- its painful. She often does this laugh that sounds so fake and simply weird... the same laugh is usually reserved for villains in cheesy American movies. The laugh is also really out of place as she laughs at things Raja does that aren't even remotely funny. Most of the characters are painfully stupid and are really just there for slap-stick, like the servants and Raja's best friend. Some scenes with them are just bizarre. However, the part of this movie that leaves me the most baffled is Raja and why everyone treats his behavior as not that far out of the ordinary... if a little shameful in some circumstances. Besides being not that smart to begin with, he is a very violent person with an extremely short temper and very inflexible notions of pride that are really just founded in insecurity. He almost beats like 6 guys to death and has to be pulled off of a guy he's about to stab with a broken bottle...just because they catcalled the Karisma Kapoor's character (Aarti). Any normal woman would have ran for the hills if some guy did that, especially since they weren't even in a relationship. When they get married he freaks out at any notion of compromise and refuses to accept any gift from his wife's father. He doesn't even want to go to Mumbai to see her family until she convinces him to go for her birthday. This is the point that the movie starts to get interesting, but Raja's behavior is still grotesquely out of line. He creates a giant,drunken, violent scene at the birthday party because he believes his wife asked him to wear a suit because she's "ashamed of him" even though shes demonstrated a thousand times before throughout the rest of the movie that she doesn't see him being a "lowly cab driver" shameful at all and has defended him before at fairly high personal stakes. Yet, his own insecurity gets in the way and he ruins everyones night and becomes a publicly embarrassing spectacle over a trivial matter that could have been easily resolved if the situation involved a man with a temper thats not like a pile of dynamite about to explode. After that, most of their miscommunication and misfortune comes from Raja's pride and unfortunate circumstances on Aarti's end, as well as familial manipulation. Raja's baffling behavior progresses to kidnapping as he steps over the unconscious body of his wife, whom he is supposedly heart broken over, to steal his baby and run all the way back to his village, which is 3 hours away by car, with no clothes, blankets, or food for the baby. At this point, he really acts like a crazed animal more than a person, with wide crazy eyes, no speech, and roughly clutching the baby when his well-meaning family try to reason with him. After other events happen and the "miscommunications" are sorted out, everybody is happy like nothing happened. I was stunned... like... hey Aarti! You're still married to a crazy, ultra-violent, super-insecure guy who kidnapped and endangered your baby and you're just cool with that? Cause the rest of it was a misunderstanding? Very bizarre. Aarti often blames herself as well for her husband's over-reactions... like I said- bizarre. I have to say I feel very confused as to why this is a "classic." I would say if you're still dying to watch it, read a summary and then skip to an hour and ten minutes or so before the end. It will be more worth it that way.

I used to love this film as a kid - but watching it as an adult made my skin crawl. Despite the incredible title song which is the only reason it gets any stars, I couldn't enjoy this.

Aarti was emotionally abused throughout the film and was expected to fall into her Raja's loving arms anyway... which she did. And somehow there was a happy ending from all of that? She didn't deserve that kind of treatment, and the message this film sends is that women should just endure and love blindly.

Not the kind of trauma we want to encourage and convey to women of any age - never forgive your abuser. It was a product of its time, so let's leave this film in the past where it belongs.

I can't believe the stupidity of this film. So, the extremely rich heroine falls in love with and actually marries a taxi driver!!! a.k.a. tourist guide. I seriously have nothing against the poor, I'm poor myself but how realistic is this plot. Not only that, she settles with him in a village!! Karishma Kapoor hams through the film. I wanted to shut my ears every time she laughed. I couldn't believe that the ever lovable and chirpy girl had such an arrogant expression on her face throughout the film. Archana Puran Singh was no less annoying.

The plot is too dumb to even speak of. And the cheesy dialogs like "haye main mar gayi" made me want to run away. It was pathetic even for the nineties. The jokes are lame and mostly in bad taste. I wonder what audience this film wished to cater to.

Yet, I am giving this painful three hour film two stars. One for the excellent acting by Aamir Khan and Suresh Oberoi. Aamir deserved the filmfare for his earnestness, no matter what people say. After all, it takes courage to work in a chaos of a story such as this. Suresh Oberoi is a lovable father, despite his 'eccentricities' (who would want their heiress daughter to marry a taxi driver?) as always.

The other star is for the exceptional music that has stayed with me till date. Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan really made the music come alive despite the bad presentation on screen. A memorable score by Nadeem Shravan, and the film's only saving grace.

Give it a skip, hear the audio though.

This is one of the best films I have ever seen. I liked it a lot. I is plenty of good acting roles, music, dance; and the most important i think: "sense", "romance" and "dream". It is true that the film remains to 90s, but yesterday i saw for the first time, and the history was not so far for me. I enjoyed everything. I fell in love Karisma Kapoor again, she is a tremendous actress, her eyes expresses all the history needs. Aamir Khan is a classic actor, the serious and comic scenes are done perfectly by him. What to say about the music? i loved it. PARDESI PARDESI, is my best one. This film, these actors and this music won the film fare awards in 1997. Raja Hindustani is one of that films that will remain in my mind and memory, always coming to give me a good remember. Many greeting from my beautiful Peru. Atte Roberto Guerra

A textbook Bollywood Rom-Com with enough dose of romance, comedy, drama and some fine acting. Raja Hindustani which till date is Aamir's biggest blockbuster in terms of footfalls will always be one of his most popular movies. Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor play their roles well. Both show depth in their characters in the second half. There were some moments which were OTT or the slow pacing of the film, but they can be overlooked upon. Overall, an enjoyable romantic blockbuster of the 90's.